lampoon

n.

1640s, from French lampon (17c.), of unknown origin, said by French etymologists to be from lampons "let us drink," popular refrain for scurrilous 17c. songs, from lamper "to drink, guzzle," a nasalized form of laper "to lap," from a Germanic source akin to lap (v.). Also see -oon.

v.

1650s, from lampoon (n.), or else from French lamponner, from the Middle French noun. Related: Lampooned; lampooning.

lampoon

virulent satire in prose or verse that is a gratuitous and sometimes unjust and malicious attack on an individual. Although the term came into use in the 17th century from the French, examples of the lampoon are found as early as the 3rd century BC in the plays of Aristophanes, who lampooned Euripides in The Frogs and Socrates in The Clouds. In English literature the form was particularly popular during the Restoration and the 18th century, as exemplified in the lampoons of John Dryden, Thomas Brown, and John Wilkes and in dozens of anonymous satires.